Indoor surroundings is understood to mean a confined space inside a building which is not continuously aerated. Examples of indoor surroundings can be found in dwellings, museums, churches, cellars, historic monuments, administrative buildings, schools, and hospitals.
Since the 1970s and the first oil crisis, the energy saving policy implemented has resulted in containment of dwellings with in particular the increased insulation of buildings. This policy, in combination with the spread of household appliances which generate vapor, such as washing machines and tumble dryers, has had the consequence of an increase in relative humidity favorable to the growth of microorganisms, in particular molds, on the majority of substrates, such as building materials.
The premises are then capable of forming “ecological niches” for the growth of microorganisms of this type. This phenomenon has thus been reflected by an increase in the number of premises contaminated by molds over the last thirty years.
The presence of molds in indoor surroundings is not without health consequences. This is because numerous studies have demonstrated their role both in the decomposition of the materials and works which they colonize and in the appearance of symptoms in the occupants of premises in which molds are present.
During the last two decades, numerous studies carried out in North America and Europe have demonstrated that, under some exposure circumstances, these microorganisms may be responsible for the appearance of diseases, in particular respiratory diseases, such as allergies, infections or toxin-derived infections.
Currently, the techniques used to detect the presence of molds in indoor surroundings are based on the visual recognition of fungal growth and the culturing of conidia withdrawn from the air or from the surfaces. In point of fact, the presence of these microorganisms can prove to be difficult to diagnose in the case of “masked” contaminations where the spores are not given off into the surroundings (when the contaminations occur in the ventilation system or also in the structures of the building, for example). While then invisible at the surface of the building materials and undetectable by microbiological analysis of the air, the molds nevertheless continuously produce metabolites and decomposition products which can be inhaled and which are responsible in some cases for diseases.
Moreover, the response of these measurement techniques is lengthy since it is necessary to wait for the microorganisms withdrawn to be grown in the laboratory before being able to carry out the analysis.
An object of the present invention is thus to overcome all or part of the abovementioned disadvantages.